The Giants expect to reduce player payroll relative to this past season, writes Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic . The extent of the pullback isn’t clear, though the club’s 2024 spending was roughly $20M higher than it had been in ’23. That’s mostly a reflection of the late-offseason free-agent pickups of Jorge Soler , Matt Chapman and Blake Snell .
Cot’s Baseball Contracts calculated San Francisco’s Opening Day payroll this year in the $208M range. They started the ’23 season with roughly $188M in spending, Cot’s measured. The Giants’ competitive balance tax number jumped north of the $237M base threshold.
They’ll pay the luxury tax for the first time in six years. The payment itself should be modest. Cot’s estimates the Giants went around $14M over the threshold.
They’re taxed at a 20% rate on the overage, so they should pay around $2.8M. (MLB hasn’t released the official CBT calculations to this point.
) While a sub-$3M tax bill is a drop in the bucket for a team that spent over $200M on salaries, it comes with ancillary penalties. The Giants would be taxed at a higher rate if they surpass the CBT next season — starting at 30% for the first $20M in overages with higher penalties beyond that. Luxury taxpayers are also subject to bigger penalties for signing a free agent who had declined a qualifying offer from another team.
The Giants would surrender $1M from their international amateur bonus pool and their second- and fifth-highest picks in next y.
